Adäquatheitskriterien für moralische Theorien - Jörg Schroth

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Proseminar Einführung in die normative Ethik Handout 3 WS 2002/03 Jörg Schroth Adäquatheitskriterien moralischer Theorien (4) Moral theories should identify afundamental principle that both (a) explains why our more specific considered moral convictions are correct and (b) justifies them from an impartial point of view. (5) Moral theories should help us deal with moral questions about which we are not confident, or do not agree. (Brad Hooker, Ideal Code, Real World, Oxford 2001, S. 4) Tom L. Beauchamp/James F. Childress (1994) Awell-developed ethical theory provides aframework within which agents can reflect on the acceptability of actions and can evaluate moral judgments and moral character. [...] Criteria for Theory Construction We begin with eight conditions of adequacy for an ethical theory. These proposals for theory construction set forth exemplary conditions for theories, but not so exemplary that atheory could not satisfy them. That all available theories only partially satisfy the demands in these conditions is not of concern here. The objective is to provide abasis from which to assess the defects and the strengths of theories. Satisfaction of these conditions protects a theory from criticism as a mere list of disconnected norms generated from our pretheoretic beliefs. The same general criteria of success in amoral theory can be used for any type of theory (for example, ascientific theory or apolitical theory). The eight conditions that follow express these criteria. 1. Clarity. First, atheory should be as clear as possible, as awhole and in its parts. Although we can expect only as much precision of language as is appropriate, more obscurity and vagueness exists in the literature of ethical theory and biomedical ethics than is necessary or justified by the subject matter. 2. Coherence. Second, an ethical theory should be internally coherent. There should be neither conceptual inconsistencies (for example, “strong medical paternalism is justified only by consent of the patient”) nor contradictory statements (for example, “to be virtuous is amoral obligation, but virtuous conduct is not obligatory”). [...] However, consistency is not asufficient condition of agood theory, only anecessary condition. If an account has implications that are incoherent with other established parts of the account, some aspect of the theory needs to be changed in away that does not produce further incoherence. [...] 3. Completeness and Comprehensiveness. A theory should be as complete and comprehensive as possible. Atheory would be entirely comprehensive if it included all moral values. Any theory that includes fewer moral values will be somewhere on a continuum from partially complete to void of important values. [...] Seite 2 von 4
Proseminar Einführung in die normative Ethik Handout 3 WS 2002/03 Jörg Schroth Adäquatheitskriterien moralischer Theorien 4. Simplicity. If atheorywith afew basic norms generates sufficient moral content, then that theoryis preferable to atheorywith more norms but no additional content. Atheory should have no more norms than are necessary, and no more than people can use without confusion. However, morality is complicated, and any comprehensive moral theory will be immensely complex. We can demand only as much simplicity in amoral theory as its subject matter permits. 5. Explanatory Power. Atheory has explanatory power when it provides enough insight to help us understand the moral life: its purpose, its objective or subjective status, how rights are related to obligations, and the like. 6. Justificatory Power. Atheory should also give us grounds for justified belief, not a reformulation of beliefs we already possess. For example, the distinction between acts and omissions underlies many critical beliefs in biomedical ethics, such as the belief that killing is impermissible and allowing to die permissible. But amoral theory would be impoverished if it only expressed this distinction without determining whether the distinction justifiably grounds those beliefs. Agood theory also should have the power to criticize defective beliefs, no matter how widely accepted those beliefs may be. 7. Output Power. Atheory has output power when it produces judgments that were not in the original data base of particular and general considered judgments on which the theorywas constructed. If atheorydid no more than repeat the list of judgments thought to be sound prior to the construction of the theory, nothing would have been accomplished. For example, if the parts of a theory pertaining to obligations of beneficence do not yield new judgments about role obligations of care in medicine beyond those assumed in constructing the theory, this failure of output suggests that the theory is purely aclassification scheme. Atheory, then, must generate more than alist of the axioms present in pretheoretic belief. 8. Practicability. Aproposed moral theory is unacceptable if its requirements are so demanding that they probably cannot be satisfied or could be satisfied by only afew extraordinary persons or communities. Amoral theory that presents utopian ideals, paltry expectations, or unfeasible recommendations fails the criterion of practicability. For example, if atheory proposed such high requirements for personal autonomy[...] or such lofty standards of social justice [...] that, realistically, no person could be autonomous and no society could be just, the proposed theory would be deeply defective. Other general criteria could be formulated, but the eight sketched above are the most important for our purposes. Atheory can receive ahigh score on the basis of one criterion and alow score on the basis of another. For example, early in this chapter utilitarianism is depicted as an internally coherent, simple, and comprehensive theory with exceptional output power, yet it is not coherent with some of our vital considered judgments, especially with certain judgments about justice, human rights, and the importance of personal projects. By contrast, Kantian theories are consistent with many of our considered judgments, but their clarity, simplicity, and output power are limited. Seite 3 von 4
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Adäquatheitskriterien für moralische Theorien - Jörg Schroth

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